Gov. Charlie Crist to Run as Independent in Florida Senate Race

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will ditch the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the Sunshine State's Senate seat, it was reported Wednesday.

Crist, whose fortunes within the GOP have faded in recent months, will make an official announcement Thursday in St. Petersburg, members of his camp told Fox News. The filing deadline is Friday.

Last week, Crist, a moderate, told the Associated Press he was making a thoughtful and deliberate effort, guided by Florida residents, to decide whether to launch an independent campaign. He has repeatedly said he has no intention of dropping out of the race completely.

Crist, once a darling of the GOP as a popular big-state governor and the runaway leader in early Senate surveys, trails his GOP opponent, Florida State Speaker Marco Rubio, by double digits in recent polls.

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.